sustained theatre

Communicating, Creating and Debating

I arrived in Port Elizabeth 2 days before the festival. Dazed and confused after being awake for 22 hours, I headed for the beach to see Africa…

I walked out to Nelson Mandela Bay. A sunny windy beach. Stretching out for miles with an industrious skyline.

I’d read a potted history of South Africa on the plane, and was intrigued to find out from local people what the new South Africa was like for them and what the transition had been like.

I headed for the nearest bar, which was predominantly white, a few locals and a few welsh rugby fans. I got a warm welcome from a guy called Jean he was a 73 year old Afrikaans guy who used to import spice from India to SA. We had a long talk on his experiences of living in South Africa, most of his friends and family had moved to Australia after the break down of Apartheid. But he thought Nelson Mandela was the best thing that ever happened to this country. His other mates however, who arrived later did not, and where very vocal about the Blacks and the Pakis…

As I wandered back to the B and B along the beach, watching the tourists heading for the Casino. It felt like I hadn’t yet arrived in Africa. It was very white and very sanitised, and I knew just a few miles out past the electric fenced suburbs where the townships, these were the communities I wanted to meet. It was there culture that I wanted to absorb, but it was a “no-go area unless you knew someone.” So I waited patiently to find it in Grahamstown…

In 1904 Rhodes University College was established in Grahamstown , and to this day makes up a large population of the town centre population, making it one of the most famous University towns in SA.

Again, driving into the town, it all looked very English, Anglican Churches, white picket fences and public schools. I didn’t know what quite to expect from SA before I arrived, but in my naivety I hadn’t expected it to be this white.

The University grounds were vast and sprawling. And along the streets, things were happening. There was a buzz. Lots of western arty theatre types dragging cases. Posters advertising shows. Market stalls, street performers with donkeys.

So from this perspective I needed the arts festival to give me a Black perspective on South Africa, going to see art was my only way in to the Townships, peoples experiences, stories and struggles and songs. It was quite surreal. But I wasn’t disappointed. I saw some truly amazing theatre that I couldn’t have seen anywhere else, in terms of form and content.

Most of the theatre on offer was either black or white , and audiences were mostly white. When speaking to local black performers or Black artists from other African countries they said the ticket prices were inconceivably high for them and so not really accessible. This is something that the Festival is addressing for next year.

As well as promoting Sustained theatre and my own company 20 Stories High, I asked the North West ST if there was any specific shows or projects I could promote while their. I took promotional material for 'BLUE BLACK SISTER' a Kunde Sisters production and made links with Sabrina Noble Smith from Visiting Arts as well as The British Council.

On a personal note I made connection with a Hip-hop outfit called E.T.C.

Who said they would be interested in possible theatre collaboration with 20 Stories High in the Future. They were a crew from Johannesburg who rapped about their hardships, but with a joyous infectious positivity for the future.

The Sustained Theatre workshop went well. It was clear that there were a number of artists who were interested in making cultural links with the UK.

I got a real glimpse of what ST could do internationally. And through the web there could be a real link of international Black artists , communicating, creating and debating.

Lemn Sissay was at the festival doing his one man show which the British Council had funded, and it felt that there were really positive steps in having a Black British presence at the festival for years to come. It felt like this was something that was valued by the organizers both, socially, politically and artistically.

Over all, my trip to SA was an amazing astounding experience, that I would call bitter-sweet. I found it depressing that things were taking so long to move on, that an international theatre festival was still very white and not accessible to black audiences. But at the same time, I could see that the cogs were moving slowly. I am very excited at the prospect of returning and maybe taking our youth theatre over to the festival in 2011.